On July 10th one of my Boston girls gave birth to a litter of 3 girls and 1 healthy boy. 1 boy was born dead, and another boy aspirated meconium (swallowed poop) and died after 1/2 an hour of resuscitation. My son and I helped our girl Kaeli to whelp her puppies, as we always do, and when the girls were born my son made the remark that their jay jay's 'looked weird', to put it nicely. I did'nt think so, although I noticed a slight difference, but put it down to our using a different sire, not one of ours. A week later, I noticed a crusty looking substance on the boy, and a couple of specks on the 2 girls, and took them to the vet. They were diagnosed with a staph infection, given amoxicillin, took it for 2 weeks, and it cleared up.They grew and were vigorous and feisty, but I noticed that the smallest girl was pushing herself backwards with her little legs.I've seen that before, we call them 'swimmers'.On Wed. I noticed one girl had a really poopy bum; so I picked her up, took her to the sink and bathed her, and that's when I noticed to my horror, an opening between the anus and vagina. I quickly examined the other 2, and found the same thing on one, and no anus on the other. I took them to the vet, where it was discovered that they all 3 were missing vertebrae, had a mish-mash of elimination abnormalities, that even if they could be surgically repaired, the dogs would never walk or walk properly. I left them at the clinic, because I could'nt stand to look at their little faces anymore, and my vet made every possible enquiry. They were all put to sleep. This has left me sad and shocked, I never saw this coming and have never had to put 1 puppy down, never mind 3. It makes me so sad to see the remaining little boy crying for his litter mates, and sitting by himself. So, for anyone out there who thinks breeding is just a matter of putting a male and a female together, and a healthy litter will result, think again. I researched these 2 pedigrees thoroughly, and this is what happened.It's just not that simple, and it can be heart breaking.

WOW!!! My question would have to be about your Vet not seeing that the girls were deformed the first time he diagnosed them with a staph infection? IMO It's time for a new vet. So sorry you had to go through that.

Life isn't like a box of chocolates . . it's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your rump tomorrow

thankyou both, it sucks badly. Serene, I might agree with you if the puppies were not just a week old at the time of the infection. Those strange holes did not manifest themselves until later on, because they were not present at birth. That's the other strange thing about this.

Wow Pen, the same thing happened to me with a Champion sired litter. Only 1 of 11 was born with out an anus and it was completely NOT evident. All others were completely healthy. The vet did not even notice this when the tails and dew claws were removed. I did not notice that the divot of an anus did not lead to anywhere.

Do you have any idea how much I have been harassed and belittled on this forum (primarily by DUSTY THANK YOU), because--- I should have noticed this problem IMMEDIATELY. Which I did notice days before it sounds that you did.

I have been told time and time again that a responsible breeder would have noticed this. I hope that they show you more consideration and sympathy for the SAME TRAGEDY, than they did for me. I hope that it is not thrown up in your face that you did not notice the problem right away, every time you disagree with someone. Not fun, trust me.

I am sorry about your loss. Things like this happen. Have you thought about something 'organic' like a pesticide or wormer causing the defects?

Nice excuses for why the same situation is treated completely differently for different people. Kind of hypocritical. Not surprising. Don't bother to cut me down any more. I am not here to feed in the drama. This board is meaningless.

Really now I didnt coddle Pen about her pups, I never said anything about it, I really dont know enough about her breeding practices to jump into it, yours on the other hand I do, you breed mutts to therefore are not reputable.

I do wonder weather the sires or dams in either situation were altered?

I am interested in hearing about anyone who has had the same experience, but that it was not immediately evident, I went over each dog like I always do, and the only SLIGHT difference in the girls was the slighly more pronounced size of their private parts, and I really did'nt think anything of it, in fact I laughed at my son, and I'm not laughing now, I wished I had listened to him and took them in immediately, if it was detectable.

Ruffian, I'm waiting for the DNA testing to come back with some answers for me.I have never seen this, nor has this condition appered anywhere in my lines. The sire is a total outcross, and that breeder has agreed to DNA test him too. I will be spaying my dog if there is a sniff of a chance she's carrying something, in fact after this, I don't want to breed her, period, it's horrendous.

Thank you for answering my question Pen, I really hope you get some sort of answer for this very sad situation. Have you ever heard of this happening in Bostons before? Did your vet have any suggestions as to what could have caused it?

As for Boxercorps, no where did I bash Pen, I asked her a question, really hoping your a girl now, I will freely admit I bashed Ali, I dislike her breeding practices. Seeing how her first post is what months was basically a big up yours dusty and TP so I really dont give two flips what she thinks of me.

First let me say, I posted this story to illustrate what kind of totally unexpected horrible things can happen, even with all possible health screening, and the best breeding practices. I would really not like this to turn into a bashing anyone thread.In answer to Ruffian, yes, since all puppies infected were girls, and the 1 boy was healthy, she has decided it's an x-linked genetic defect. The DNA will show more than we can guess now. I have never seen this, and one of my friends who is a breeder for the last 35 years had one dog without an anus back in the 80's.

I was talking to someone recently, and they mentioned a Norfolk terrier breeder that was puppies born with deformities. I got the impression the breeder was having these problems again and again with different litters. Not good.

I don't think it's genetic... I think it's more like being a conjoined twin. An error during gestation. It could be something chemical in the environment, maybe mom has some disease process causing it, or high body temp in females during gestation can cause abnormalities in the fetus.

Who told you it's X-linked? X-linked genetic defects generally show up in males, not females. I am guessing you won't breed her again regardless and that's probably the best choice... But if you would like further explanation of why it's probably not an x-linked defect, feel free to PM me.

Pen - awe hun, I'm really sorry about what happened. It's so heartbreaking. Is this something that is genetic? I've only heard of it on this forum and didn't know what causes it and was just wondering if once it happened, what the chances are of it happening to future litters.

Is the surviving pup going to be OK? or are there tests that you can have done to make sure?

Ali - seriously, can you ever keep the focus on anyone but yourself? Pen is going through a difficult time. Please stop hijacking posts in order to spew your hate. Grow up!! It's not always about you!!

luvmypugglebaby, it's very complicated, but basically we have to determine if the parents are carrying a gene that caused this defect. That's the simple answer. Both parents are champions, OFA,'d CERF,'d beautiful specimens of their breed. That being said, something terrible went wrong, and I'm hoping the DNA will give me the answers. I have had other litters off this dog, granted only 2, but all perfect. I will not breed her again, in all likelyhood. I don't know what the sire's owner will do, I think once again a lot depends on the DNA results.The little boy that's remaining is in perfect health, just lonely, and looking for his sisters.